Around 12% of land in the UK is covered by peatlands -- nearly three million hectares. Peatlands are a natural store of carbon but centuries of exploitation, particularly draining the peat to plant forests or grow crops, have led to damage and degradation, meaning that they are now a net source of UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, taken as a whole, are losing sequestered peat at a rate equal to that of all UK industry, excepting energy. Restoration of these peatlands would help the UK to meet its ambitious targets to reduce its emissions by 78% by 2035, but funding restoration projects is an expensive business. It is clear that targets will not be met without the considerable support of private investment, including through possible investments in carbon markets. This is recognised globally and a central mechanism under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, a key topic for COP26\. A key problem that needs to be solved is how to measure carbon loss over peatlands. In this project, we take advantage of a number of independent scientific advancements to develop an integrated, robust, low-cost solution to the measurement of carbon loss over peatlands that is capable of attracting large-scale private investment and can help governments take full advantage of peatlands in their own goals of achieving net zero. In healthy peatlands, the surface responds seasonally to changes in water and gas volumes by rising and falling, a phenomenon known as "bog breathing". Terra Motion Limited, a spin-out company from the University of Nottingham have developed a novel technique that uses free satellite radar data to measure this motion to millimetric accuracy for peatlands at local, regional and national scale. Ongoing research led by the University of Nottingham and the Thurso-based Environmental Research Institute funded by NatureScot recently showed the huge potential of their APSIS land motion product for the monitoring of peatland condition. In parallel to this research, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology have established the key role that water table depth has in driving emissions and have developed cutting-edge instrumentation that can be placed at key locations across a bog that can report on the water level remotely and accurately. Through a judicious integration of these technologies, the EMPIRES project will demonstrate a carbon MRV system that will increase the credibility, confidence and uptake of peatland restoration and improve carbon sequestration. ​

Bridges are among a nation's key infrastructure assets. The closure or collapse of bridges results in significant economic losses (circa £650K for one lane closure of the Forth Road Bridge) or heavy casualties (32 killed and 17 injured in the Seongsu Bridge collapse in1993). It is critical to develop an intelligent structural health monitoring (iSHM) system to ensure the safety and serviceability of bridges during their life time, particularly for long-span bridges due to their significance, high construction costs and susceptibility to wind-induced and fatigue damage. iSHM is a collaboration between the Chinese partners in Jiangsu - an economic powerhouse of China, who possess rich experiences in designing and installing SHM sensory systems and detailed knowledge of and access to the Chinese SHM market, and the UK team led by UbiPOS and supported by the University of Nottingham, who are the developers of world leading SHM solutions and data strategies empowered with cloud-based computation and big data analytics. Remote sensing images, hydrological data and third party data will be extensively used for comprehensive monitoring of selected bridges along the Yangtze River as demonstrators of iSHM for exploiting world wide opportunities in SHM applications.

Many national assets, such as reservoir embankments, flood defences and the rail network, are dispersed around the nation and require routine monitoring as failure can result in severe human, environmental and economic consequences. Although the structure of these assets are complex, small deformations such as a localised slip, slump or differential motion in an embankment, can provide clues that there are issues requiring immediate investigation. In this project, we propose a monitoring system that will help identify these changes and provide an early warning of potentially serious threats, enabling asset managers to more precisely focus maintenance resources on those locations at greater risk. The solution is based upon an innovative satellite remote sensing method capable of measuring local trends in land movement over all land cover classes to millimetric accuracy. The system will combine Earth Observation data with a novel data processing technique and will provide regional measurements of ground stability at regular temporal intervals which will enable asset managers to identify potential threats. We will show that cost-effective routine asset monitoring can be achieved at a national scale using readily available, non-invasive, satellite imagery.

Geomatic Ventures Limited are developing an advanced system for the detection and monitoring of ground stability using satellite radar imagery, using the technique of SAR interferometry (InSAR) and known as Punnet Geo. The system enables an early identification of potential geohazards that may induce seismicity in areas surrounding shale gas wells, at millimetric vertical precision. Key benefits are low cost, repeatability, objectivity and continuity over decadal time scales. The system features key improvements over standard satellite-based InSAR techniques, in realising useability across all landscape types in addition to otherwise urbanised regions. This project will demonstrate the feasibility of high-volume data processing using the Sentinel-1 satellite. The project will also develop a business and commercialisation strategy.